Tomorrow the City Council will decide whether to value its overburdened tenants by increasing protections for renters, including reducing the 8 percent maximum rent increases allowed under San Jose's 35-year-old rent control ordinance.The decision is vital to families who will not be able to survive in the city that they were raised in. "Tents should be for camping, not living," read the signs on tents that were at San Jose's City Hall Plaza during last Wednesday's action to tell City Council that its community want rent control.

Next Tuesday the San Jose city council will decide on strengthening protections for renters, including the annual allowable increase for rent controlled buildings. Hear from renters who have faced eviction, some living in unsafe conditions and on top of that still given unchecked rent increases that far exceed any wage increases.

Students from DeAnza College along with the Affordable Housing Network, and part of the Silicon Valley Renter's Coalition, presented a renter’s rights organizing workshop on Saturday, Oct. 17th - educating tenants on their rights and the need for stronger protections in San Jose's Apartment Rent Ordinance in a time when a quarter of families who rent in San Jose spend more than half their income on rent.

Last week tenants and housing rights organizations across the Bay Area organized coordinated actions in Mountain View, San Mateo, Redwood City, Burlingame, Oakland, Alameda, San Francisco, Fremont and San Jose to spotlight the crisis felt by tens of thousands of families being pushed out of their homes. In San Jose tenants gathered at the first meeting of an advisory committee approved by San Jose City Council to consult the Council on revising the City's current ordinance.